Question Hosting Company Database Issues

Hi guys,

My first post here. I have a quick question about using Kunena on my site.

My hosting company restricts the database size I can use to 1GB. I've seen on some discussion sites about users of Kunena having database size that are larger than 1GB. So I figure it might be a good idea if I can install the Kunena using it's own database rather than share it with the one Joomla is installed on.

My hosting company doesn't even have a upgrade price plan if I need a bigger database so I figured this approach will help me maximize my Kunena use.

So my question is... Can Kunena be configured to use a specific database?

G'day, Bluebeep, and thank you for your interest in Kunena.

I will offer you a few of my own personal opinions, general observations, as a way of answering your questions. While, a 1 Gb hosting plan is not considered to be a very large amount of space these days, you can host a Kunena forum on a Joomla site well within that limit. A Joomla website, with Kunena (and very little else) can easily fit within say 30 Mb. The rate at which your database grows depends on the amount of forum activity that your site experiences. Let's say that your forum gets 100 messages the size of the one that I'm writing now every single day. All other things equal, this would mean that you would not have to worry about searching for a different hosted platform or upgrading your site, for about the next 10 years. Of course, if your users upload lots of images or videos then 10 years is totally unrealistic but, if one hundred of your users each wrote 500 words every day on your forum, it would take 4 days to consume 1 Mb.

The rate at which your database will grow depends on many things:

• What other Joomla extensions are you going to use?
• What you will allow your members to post on the forum?
• How much your users are going to write?

So, while 1 Gb is not much, these days, for a couple of dollars a month, you're not likely to exhaust this amount in the near future unless you (or your users) are profligate consumers of storage. Webhosting companies are a dime-a-dozen and if your webhost lacks a suitable upgrade path for the future then you might be advised to take your business elsewhere.

Can Kunena be configured to use a specific database? I don't really know how to answer that question differently from stating the facts: Kunena uses the same database as Joomla. Even if you can find an alternative answer I don't think will make a difference to the main fear/concern that you seem to have.

Hi sozzled,

Thanks! I didn't realize how little space text actually takes. Of course I knew it does, but I have never had it described to me this way before.

I'm building a Music site that will host tutorials, feature some of our music, offer mixing and mastering services etc. We were thinking to have Kunena set up so users have a place to share thoughts, learn stuff from each other and possibly share music that they have created.

I think it's the sharing of music that will take up a lot of space in the database. I have no space restriction on the server's file system so I was wondering if there is a way for me to store the actual mp3 files that users post on the file system and have Kunena display the link. This way there is just the link to store in the database and the actual audio file isn't in the database.

Do you think that's possible? Is it an optional configuration in Kunena?

That would really be an ideal situation.

BTW, I hear you about the choice in hosting companies - stubborn client...

Bluebeep wrote: I think it's the sharing of music that will take up a lot of space in the database.

I doubt it. .mp3 files are rarely stored in a database; they're usually stored in the file system. I don't think you will have the slightest problem.

I misunderstood your original question. A 1Gb database is not a lot, really, but I understand the reasons why your webhosting company may not be able to allow its customers the option to have larger databases. I misinterpreted this 1 Gb restriction as applying to the whole site (files + database) and, in that sense, 1 Gb is really tiny.

When I wrote that a Joomla website fits into 30 Mb or thereabouts, I meant the files plus the database. I'm sorry for the confusion.

Although databases are mainly used for storing text, they can be used for other material. Kunena stores text in its database. Other media (uploaded through or accessed by Kunena) are stored elsewhere as files.

There are no options to configure Kunena in the way you've described and, in your case, there really should be no need for it, either.

Thanks once again! I'm sold.

Off to install Kunena! Woohoo!